1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to the field of computers, and in particular, to the interface and connection of computer peripheral devices to a computer system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to an improved method and system for monitoring and controlling the connection of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device to the computer system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer peripheral input/output (I/O) devices connect to a variety of data ports or external connectors of a host computer system, which includes a system processor and memory. One such port connector interface is the Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, the specification of which is set forth in the generally available document entitled, “Universal Serial Bus Specification” release 2.0, Apr. 27, 2000 (USB.org), prepared by representatives of Compaq Computer Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, Intel Corporation, Lucent Technologies Inc., Microsoft Corporation, NEC Corporation, and Royal Philips Electronics (Philips). Peripheral device interfaces that comply with the specification are referred to as USB interfaces and have been included in many recently developed personal computer systems. Such USB devices are generally referenced as either low-speed devices, capable of transferring data at a rate of 1.5 Megabits per second (Mb/s); or high-speed devices (also called full-speed devices) capable of transferring data at 12 Mb/s. Under the USB 2.0 specification, full-speed devices are capable of using 40× multipliers for a transfer rate of 480 Mb/s, and such USB devices are typically known as true high-speed devices.
Within a personal computer system, a USB interface serves to provide well-known plug-n-play capability for personal computer peripherals such as external Compact Disc-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) drives, joysticks, magnetic tape and floppy drives, external hard drives, scanners, and printers. Additionally, the USB interface allows an alternate connection for primary system input devices such as keyboards and mice, providing an alternative to the dedicated keyboard and mouse non-USB ports that many personal computer manufacturers provide. The industry generally refers to the non-USB keyboard and mouse ports as the PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse port, respectively.
In a secured environment, control of the system configuration is one of the factors that should be considered. USB ports allow for easy insertion of peripheral devices to and from the computer system. However, this ease of addition of peripheral devices poses security problems. Easy addition of peripheral devices, especially those related to mass storage, can compromise the security of the computer system. By connecting an unauthorized mass data storage system, such as a magnetic floppy disk drive, harmful data such as fraudulent data or computer viruses may be loaded into the computer system. Further, sensitive data, such as proprietary or trade secret data, could be downloaded off the computer system into the unauthorized USB storage device.
In the prior art, connecting USB devices from a host computer system requires the involvement of the operating system of the host computer system. However, software associated with the operating system is typically non-secure, or at least easy to access, thus making it easy for an authorized programmer to modify the software to enable unauthorized USB device connect events.
It should therefore be apparent that there exists a need for a method and system that securely controls the addition of a USB device, and then preferably informs the owner of the computer system of its addition. Such a method and system preferably permit the owner, either manually or automatically through secure software, to allow or prevent an addition of the USB device. Further, it would be desirable to devise a system having the means to implement the USB device connection control method. In addition, it would also be desirable to devise a computer program product for monitoring and controlling an addition of a USB device.